Posts tagged shooting
CU Buffs Down Oregon Ducks
Mar 8th
By B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com Contributing Editor
BOULDER -After thee, one-point victories over the Ducks. Colorado put the hurt on Oregon 76-53.
It was an outrageous, out-of-sight blowout Thursday night at the sold-out (11,013) Coors Events Center, and at night’s end CU savored a sweep of Oregon and its fourth win in six games this season against a Top 25 opponent.
If the Buffs needed another highlight on their NCAA Tournament resume, this was it. And if coach Tad Boyle needed another milestone win in his three-year CU career, he can put a check by this one.
“I told the team in the locker room I have been coaching division one basketball for 18 years now and I am not sure I have been more proud of a group of guys with what they did and how they stepped up,” Boyle said. “Our starters, bench, whoever we put in there played their hearts out and we beat a good solid basketball team.
Unfortunately, we cannot enjoy it as much as we would like to, we have to get ready for Saturday, and this was a gutty effort with a great basketball team.”
The Buffs, now 9-3 in their last 12 games, close the regular season on Sunday against Oregon State (2:30 p.m., CEC).
In the absence of the 6-7 Roberson, who is day-to-day with a viral illness, the Buffs took up the slack by committee. Their headliner was freshman Xavier Johnson, who responded with a career-high 22 points. He was perfect from the field, hitting seven-of-seven, including three-of-three from beyond the arc, and was five-of-six from the free throw line.
Boyle called Johnson’s performance “terrific . . . his performance was big time, when you make shots it covers up a lot of things and we were not able to do that at Cal but we were able to do it tonight. I was really proud of him stepping up because he is a guy that with Andre being out we needed to count on.”
Sophomore guards Spencer Dinwiddie and Askia Booker added 17 and 11, respectively. Dinwiddie contributed seven rebounds and Booker six. Junior Jeremy Adams left the bench for seven points, and senior Sabatino Chen – opening in Roberson’s place – got six.
Oregon has three players with 10 points each – Jonathan Lloyd, Ben Carter and Arsalan Kazemi.
Chen returning the starting five gave the Buffs a smaller than usual lineup that produced matchup problems for the Ducks. Said Oregon coach Dana Altman: “They went small and we had a little trouble with that and then (Xavier) Johnson stepped up and hit a lot of shots, so he played really well. (He) really made a big difference in the game.”
Even without Roberson’s 11.5-board average (he also averages 10.8 points) and fierce defensive presence, the Buffs outrebounded the Ducks 38-35 and held them to 35.7 percent shooting. CU now has held nine consecutive Pac-12 Conference opponents under 70 points – the most since 16 foes were held under 70 during the entire 1962 Big Eight season and the first two games of the following season.
“Rebounding is always our emphasis,” Dinwiddie said. “We like to say that defensive rebounding is the pillar of our program. But of course when someone like Andre goes out and rebounding is their specialty, you have to pick up the slack in that area. We just all had to pick up the rebounds as a team.”
CU improved to 20-9 overall – its school-record third 20-win season, all under Boyle – and 10-7 in the Pac-12. Oregon, needing a win to clinch a tie for first place in the conference, leaves Boulder 23-7, 12-5.
CU has had its share of injury/illness problems over the past three weeks. Freshman center Josh Scott was in his second game back since missing two with a concussion. He returned last weekend at California, scoring four points but hauling down 11 rebounds, and he collected eight on Thursday night with another four points.
Then comes Roberson’s illness . . . but the Buffs were a team on a mission. Johnson said Roberson’s absence “puts a lot of pressure on the freshman and everybody else, knowing that we have to make up for those rebounds. So, we just tried to do the best we could.”
The Ducks scored the game’s first basket – a jumper by E.J. Singler – but it was their last lead of the night. By intermission, despite Boyle having to sub liberally because of two fouls each on five of his key players, CU had rolled to a 37-21 lead – the Buffs’ largest halftime advantage of the season in Pac-12 play.
CU’s first-half defense was stifling, limiting Oregon to 18 percent shooting (3-for-16) in the first 10 minutes. By intermission the Ducks’ shooting had improved, but not by much – 7-for-26 (27 percent). The Buffs, meanwhile, improved on their 23 percent shooting last weekend at Cal, going 13-of-27 (48 percent) and hitting half of their eight three-point attempts.
Needing to at least maintain their intensity to open the second half, the Buffs took it a step further, outscoring the visitors 8-4 over the first 5 minutes to race ahead by 20 (45-25).
With 12:31 to play, CU pushed its advantage to 24 (55-31) on a pair of Dinwiddie free throws after a flagrant foul on Oregon. The Ducks could only get as close as 17 points in the final 10 minutes, and the Buffs pushed their advantage to 25 (71-46) before it was over.
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C
B-ball honors rolling in for Jeffery and Roberson
Mar 4th
Additionally, Roberson was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week for the fifth time and for the second consecutive week.
Jeffery, a 5-foot-10-inch guard from Colorado Springs, Colo., earns All-Pac-12 Media honors for the second straight season. She leads Colorado in scoring (13.6 ppg), assists (4.0 apg), rebounds (8.6 rpg) and steals (2.3 spg). Jeffery has 10 double-doubles on the season, eight of which have come during conference play. She is prominent on the Pac-12 leaderboard ranking fifth in steals, assists, assist-to-turnover ratio (1.3), overall rebounding and defensive rebounds (6.6 drpg), 10th in scoring and 13th in free-throw percentage (.707).
Roberson, a 6-1 forward from San Antonio, is second on the team and ranks 15th in the Pac-12 in scoring at 12.4 points per game. She tops the Buffaloes in free-throws made and attempted (92-of-136) and is second in rebounding at 5.8 per outing. Roberson is one of the league’s better offensive rebounders with a team-best 86, ranking seventh on the league charts.
She scored her fifth Pac-12 Freshman of the week honor after averaging 13 points and 7.5 rebounds as the Buffaloes extended their winning streak to nine with road wins at the Oregon schools. She had a game-high 16 points on 6-of-11 from the field against Oregon, including a perfect 2-of-2 from 3-point range which gave her 9 on just 15 attempts over a four-game span. She also recorded four rebounds, one block and one steal.
Roberson recorded her second career double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds in the come-from-behind win at Oregon State. Roberson had eight offensive rebounds alone, matching her personal best, and which ties for the eighth best single-game performance in team history. She hit 6-of-7 from the free throw line, including a pair of free throws with six seconds left in overtime that provided the final winning margin (66-63).
Roberson earned the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week award three times during the nonconference schedule, and was the inaugural recipient of that honor on Nov. 12 after scoring 16 points on 7-of-13 shooting with six rebounds, five steals, two assists and two blocks in her collegiate debut – a 70-65 win over Idaho on Nov. 11.
The Pac-12 added Freshman of the Week to its weekly honors for the first time this season, joining the standard Player of the Week honor which this week went to Stanford’s Chiney Ogwumike. Roberson has won Freshman of the Week more than any other player (three others have three: Jillian Alleyne, Oregon; Lia Galdeira, Washington State; Talia Walton, Washington).
Roberson’s honor is CU’s eighth weekly award in the Pac-12 since the Buffaloes joined the conference in 2011, and seventh this season alone. Jeffery has earned two Pac-12 Player of the Week honors this season. Roberson’s five weekly conference awards in one season are the most by any Buffalo in the Big-12, Pac-12 era (since 1996-97).
The Pac-12 coaches’ awards will be announced later this week.
2013 Pac-12 Media All-Pac-12:
Brittany Boyd, CAL; Gennifer Brandon, CAL; Alyssia Brewer, UCLA; Michelle Plouffe, UTAH; Layshia Clarendon, CAL; Jazmine Davis, WASH; Lia Galdeira, WSU; Cassie Harberts, USC; Chucky Jeffery, COLO; Kristi Kingma, WASH; Atonye Nyingifa, UCLA; Chiney Ogwumike, STAN; Joslyn Tinkle, STAN; Markel Walker, UCLA; Davellyn Whyte, ARIZ.
2013 Media All-Defensive Team:
Brittany Boyd, CAL; Lia Galdeira, WSU; Chiney Ogwumike, STAN; Eliza Pierre, CAL; Joslyn Tinkle, STAN; Markel Walker, UCLA.
2013 Pac-12 Media All-Freshman Team:
Jillian Alleyne, ORE; Lia Galdeira, WSU; Arielle Roberson, COLO; Talia Walton, WASH; Jamie Weisner, OSU.
Player of the Year: Chiney Ogwumike, STAN
Freshman of the Year: Jillian Alleyne, ORE
Defensive Player of the Year: Chiney Ogwumike, STAN
Coach of the Year: Lindsay Gottlieb, CAL
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CU men lose to Golden Bears, throwing NCAA bid in doubt
Mar 3rd
CU, ranked fifth in the Pac-12 Conference going into Saturday’s game, falls to 19-9 overall and 9-7 in the Pac-12. The third-ranked Golden Bears, winning their seventh consecutive game, improved to 20-9 overall and 12-5.
Colorado struggled offensively Saturday with a season low in points, field goals made (15) and field goal shooting percentage (23.1). Freshman forward Xavier Johnson was the only CU player in double figures with 14 total points. Freshman Josh Scott returned to the lineup after missing two games with a concussion. He scored four points and grabbed 11 rebounds.
Cal’s Justin Cobbs and Tyrone Wallace scored 16 points each, while David Kravish added 14 points and 11 rebounds. Wallace also hauled down 11 boards.
“We didn’t have one guy offensively make a shot tonight, but you have to credit Cal, they man-handled us,” CU coach Tad Boyle said. “Our first shot defense was pretty good but those second-chance shots were tough.”
The Buffs came into Saturday’s matchup looking to smother guard Allen Crabbe, the leading scorer in the Pac-12 at more than 18 points per game. But when Crabbe recorded his third personal foul with 5:11 remaining in the half, he took to the bench.
An improving Cal team executed offensively without its star scorer, though. The Golden Bears went on an 8-0 run over the next four minutes to go up 22-15, and while senior guard Sabatino Chen hit a three to end the half on an energetic note, the Buffs were still down four (24-20) at intermission.
The Golden Bears held the Buffs to just 26 percent shooting in the first half, CU’s worst first-half field goal percentage this season, and the Buffs’ 20 first-half points tied a season low recorded earlier this season at Washington.
Much of CU’s shooting woes came from a failure to capitalize off of Cal turnovers, as CU had a +2 turnover margin going into halftime, but had five fewer points off of turnovers than its opponent.
The Buffs found some energy out of the locker room, closing the gap back to two on a Xavier Johnson trey with 14:16 left in the game. Cal responded, though, with an 8-3 run over the next five minutes capped by a SC Top-10-worthy dunk by guard Tyrone Wallace.
Cal had widened its gap to nine by the 5:32 mark — and with a final shooting percentage of 23.1 from the field, the Buffs’ comeback attempt came nowhere close. By the final buzzer, CU was down 16 for a 62-46 loss.
“Cal wasn’t this Cal when they came to Boulder a month ago,” said Boyle, whose team won the first meeting 81-71. “So they’ve improved We were the best defensive team in the league for a stretch there but these guys have overtaken us and you can see why.”
CU returns to the Coors Events Center next weekend for its final two regular season matchups, against No. 24 Oregon on Thursday (7 p.m.) and Oregon State on Saturday (2:30 p.m.).
Boyle called Saturday’s contest “a big time game and we didn’t answer the bell. But it wasn’t because of our lack of effort and we can’t get too down on ourselves. We have two big games at home to finish out the season.”
At 12-4 in the Pac-12, the Ducks currently hold the top spot in the conference, while the Beavers are ranked 11th at 3-13.